C25K Week 5 Completed

It’s taken 12 weeks to complete 5 weeks of couch to 5K training but, as I mentioned in my previous post, that’s because most weeks in only doing one C25K session. Anyway, this week’s solo run was week 5, day 3 which is a 20 minute continuous run with the usual 5 minute warm up and cool down walks. 

I can run for 20 minutes but, in the past, have usually been quite slow, for me, with an average pace of around 6:40/km. So, I was expecting to have a similar pace for the km splits that didn’t include the warm up and cool down walks. I think my mix of training must have helped me somewhere along the line, or maybe it’s because it’s taken me so long to get to the 20 minute continuous run, but it felt good and I had splits of 6:25 and 6:13 for the 2km which didn’t include walking. The average pace for the whole 30 minute session was 7:02/km which is the best so far. 

It’s going to take me a while to get on to week 6 as the Man is off on my running days next week so I’ll be running with him. Whenever I get on to week 6, though, I’ll be ready. 

Where is Home?

Prompt number 2 on my list of 52 is …

Write about the place you call home

Home is in York. It is small and very cluttered. Basically we have too much stuff! It doesn’t help that I have two businesses which I run from home one of which is Tupperware so I have loads of Tupperware products.

York is a lovely city.  Yes, I am biased because I live here but I’m not from here.  We visited North Yorkshire in the late 1990s and loved it so much that we moved here.  I think it took about 3 or 4 years before we decided that York was the place for us.

It is a small city but with so much history and beautiful countryside right on our doorstep.  We really should get out more!

We have a cathedral but we call it The Minster

We have an ice cream boat on the River Ouse in the Summer

The river floods at any time of year if it rains for long enough.

Couch to 5K, again!

I’ve tried to complete the Couch to 5K programme a number of times but never seem to get past week 5 or 6 because I have found that I complete parkrun, or any other event come to that, faster if I “jeff” (run, walk, run method from Jeff Galloway).  I mean, I achieved my parkrun PB of 29:21 in February 2015 by running for 4 minutes and walking for 1 minute.  So why would I want to run the whole thing?  Actually, I can I just can’t keep up the running pace for as long without the walk breaks so my times are about 2 to 3 minutes slower.

Anyway, I digress.  This year I have decided to try the Couch to 5K programme again but this time I’m going to complete it and when I do I’m going to run all the way round parkrun.  The completion of the Couch to 5K is going to be some way off as I am only completing one, maybe two, runs from the programme each week as my third run of the week is always parkrun which I am still “jeffing” and doing incredibly well at if I do say so myself.  Take a look at my times for this year!

Apart from a couple of weeks, each week has been faster than the previous one and the times slower than 32 minutes were when I ran with the Man.

If the Man is off on one of my running days during the week then I will run with him rather than doing my Couch to 5K run.  So, despite starting the Couch to 5K programme in January, I  am only up to week 5.  My next run will be my first continuous run so on Tuesday I will be running for 20 minutes.  We’ll see how I get on.

I won’t be doing a fast run at parkrun next week either as I will be volunteering as a run/walk pacer before the Man, Adam and I complete our first running event of the year.  We’ve entered a 5 mile run at Elvington.  It should be good and the medal looks amazing 😀